Port Authority holds public hearing on proposed cuts

Students who bus to the airport with Port Authority of Allegheny County may face a… Students who bus to the airport with Port Authority of Allegheny County may face a transportation hurdle starting in September.

If proposed cuts to Port Authority’s services go through, beginning on Sep. 2 the 28X bus route will end at Robinson Town Centre, stranding riders more than seven miles from the Pittsburgh International Airport.

On Wednesday, Port Authority held a 12-hour public hearing at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center Downtown. Hundreds of individuals pre-registered for time slots to speak in front of the Agency’s board members, including CEO Stephen Bland. The hearing limited oral testimony to three minutes per speaker and divided the group between a large conference room and a smaller “overflow” room.

Port Authority spokesperson Jim Ritchie said the number of people who wanted to speak skyrocketed this year from years past, with both rooms entirely booked.

For the coming fiscal year, Port Authority will face a $64 million budget deficit. Barring new legislation and labor agreements, Port Authority’s proposal on the table suggests higher fares and a 35 percent reduction in service. Many routes stand to be eliminated and more will see reduced frequency and shortened span of service. All but 13 routes will end service at 10 p.m., seven days a week.

“For years Port Authority has provided services on what you might call its core bus lines for a tremendous span of time through the day. Some of these routes ran all but four hours a day for the most part. So, that just won’t exist anymore,” Ritchie said.

Port Authority estimates that 45,000 riders will be left without service.

Port Authority of Allegheny County was created by a state law and is primarily funded by the state government. The bill that created the institution requires it to have a balanced budget every year.

“Our deficit is $64 million and to make up that much money, you have to cut an amount of service that gets you that amount of money,” Ritchie said. “It’s pretty simple math.”

Despite the economic necessity, Ritchie said the cuts would make the city’s public transit system inadequate and that the reductions should not be made.

“None of the services on that list should be cut, there’s no reason for it,” he said. “These are buses that are full, these are buses that are necessary, they’re providing good services in areas where there’s a demand and pulling them out is counterproductive … there’s no fat in the system to cut anymore.”

At 10:30 a.m., a lone picketer, Brandon Hill, stood in the rain outside of the convention center holding a sign that read, “Port Authority, bad management, don’t blame the drivers, don’t blame [Gov. Tom] Corbett.”

Hill said that the Port Authority’s upper management was to blame for the organization’s budget woes.

“Somebody needs to investigate them thoroughly,” Hill said. “They’re uncontrollable, they’re a runaway freight train.”

The individuals present at the hearing could be roughly divided into four groups.

Hill represents the first group, made up of those who believe the budget crisis is the result of a spending problem. The second held the state government accountable, claiming the mess stems from a lack of adequate funding.

Pittsburghers for Public Transit, an all-volunteer organization of transit riders and drivers, handed out pamphlets that said “the state has failed to find a stable, dedicated source of funding for transit for 20 years.”

“You shouldn’t be holding this meeting, political leaders should be holding this meeting,” Don Goughler, the president of Family Services of Western Pennsylvania, said to Port Authority’s representatives in his testimony. “They have need of you and believe it or not, you have need of us.”

By noon, what had been one picketer had become a legion, but with an entirely different message.

This was the third group, mostly made up of members of the Occupy movement and similar movements, claiming that the cuts would be unnecessary if the state had a more equitable tax code. They stood chanting, some holding signs that read, “Public Transit need a fix, we know how: Tax the rich,” and “No more austerity for yinz.”

Inside the hearings, one occupier said, “We do not have a spending problem, we do not have a funding problem, we have a priority problem,” to near-universal applause.

The final group pointed no fingers. They were only there to describe why they needed public transportation and plead their cases. Many were handicapped and rely on the Port Authority’s ACCESS program, which provides door-to-door, shared ride transportation for senior citizens and people with disabilities who make advance reservations.

Ritchie said that this group would be hit hardest. To be eligible for ACCESS, a rider must live within three-quarters of a mile of an existing Port Authority route. Because so many routes are being eliminated, significantly fewer people will be able to use the service.

“People who rely on [ACCESS] and have no way otherwise to get to transit are entirely cut off,” he said. “The impact on ACCESS may be far, far greater than any impact on the regular system.”

Ritchie said that in the end, regardless of who one blames for the service reductions, the hearing was crucial because it provided citizens with an opportunity to have their voices heard.

“The good thing, if there is a good thing in all this, is that when you have an event like this you start to see all the different kinds of people who are concerned about it and are engaged in it and want to help,” he said. “I think that what we’re seeing, bottom-line, is a strong showing of support for public transport.”